zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Culture
/
More Than $400,000 in Art Stolen From a Truck in Colorado
More Than $400,000 in Art Stolen From a Truck in Colorado-September 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:12:00

Image for article titled More Than $400,000 in Art Stolen From a Truck in Colorado

Thieves stole five from a locked truck in a hotel parking lot in Boulder, Colorado, last month.

Someone made off with the art while the folks transporting it slept in their hotel rooms. The unknown person cut the padlock on the truck and made off with several tools and five pieces of art, valued at more than $400,000, according to .

The cops included some images of the missing art, which seem to all come from the Taos Society of Artists — a short-lived artist organization out of Taos, New Mexico in the early 20th Century. They depict little slices of western American life, just as that life was almost done completely disappearing.

You might think: why the heck are paintings with such high valuable left in a parked truck overnight in the first place? It turns out, high-end art is not as securely transported as you’d think.

In 2006, for instance, a fine arts services company in Florida hired ex-conn Patrick McIntosh to drive truckload of multimillion dollars worth of art to New York, the reports. Instead, McIntosh took off with the art, which was later found untouched in a trailer park in Gainesville, Florida. That same year a 228-year-old painting meant for the Guggenheim Museum was stolen from a truck in a similar hotel parking lot in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. In 2016, $250,000 worth of paintings were stolen from a trailer parked on a LA street.

Theft from vehicles is a known problem that collectors and museum directors take steps to prevent. From the arts magazine :

Take, for instance, this weird historical quirk: the artist who has seen the highest number of his works stolen is Nick Lawrence. Talented, but hardly the household name like the others at the top of this unfortunate list, Lawrence saw 557 of his works go missing virtually at once, when they were moved without his permission from the location where they had been stored. It is unclear what happened to the works once they were taken off-site.

More recently, three hooded thieves in Madrid knew exactly what they were doing when they stole a truck filled with 28 paintings, including works by Picasso, Fernando Botero, and Eduardo Chillida, from a warehouse.

Though lending institutions always seek insurance when loaning a valuable piece to another museum for a show, the protocol for securing the works can be as varied as the works themselves. It’s not unusual, for instance, for the transport company’s truck to be marked with its corporate name—a clear indicator to knowing thieves that art is in tow. Further, it would be a mistake to assume that the drivers and their partners are armed. They aren’t trained security personnel; they’re trained art handlers.

Fortunately, responsible art institutions often use a “chase car” for the more valuable works. This ensures that the art handlers go where they are supposed to, and that should something nefarious happen, an extra set of eyes are available to track movement until law enforcement can arrive. Clearly, the future of art transit security will rely heavily on small, hard-to-detect GPS devices in the moving trucks and in the packing equipment. Thieves might be able to make a quick getaway, but they can’t outrun a satellite.

New career goal: Become a chase driver protecting major works of art while in transportation. Stranger things have definitely been stolen from trucks, like from a truck in Denver last year.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Culture
What Do You Want To Know About The 2020 Honda Civic Hatchback?
What Do You Want To Know About The 2020 Honda Civic Hatchback?
We already know Honda Civics tend to give you a lot of car for not very much money. The Hatchback (in the Sport Touring trim) does not disappoint. What do you want to know about it? As mentioned above, my loaner—in this very pretty, pearlescent-gray color—has the Sport Touring...
Sep 2, 2026
Foo Fighters — 'Everlong'
Foo Fighters — 'Everlong'
Traffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast and we’ll provide the jams. I thought it was a dream, what we knew. It is the only truth. ...
Sep 2, 2026
Mercedes Is Looking To Axe Up To 15,000 Jobs
Mercedes Is Looking To Axe Up To 15,000 Jobs
Carlos Ghosn wants a documentary, Volvo might go public, and the coronavirus is having a big impact on the auto industry. All this and more in for Monday, February 10, 2020. Viruses aren’t the only reason automakers are cutting back or halting production. Over in Europe, Daimler is doubling...
Sep 2, 2026
The Porsche Cayman GT4 And Boxster Spyder Are Finally Getting A PDK Transmission: Report
The Porsche Cayman GT4 And Boxster Spyder Are Finally Getting A PDK Transmission: Report
Porsche’s track-focused hardcore 718 Cayman GT4 and 718 Boxster Spyder launched last year with a six-speed manual as the only transmission offering. Now, after years of rumors, it seems that a dual-clutch option is finally going to be available. According to from British car magazine Evo, a PDK-equipped Cayman...
Sep 2, 2026
It (The 2021 Jaguar F-Type) Is Yellow
It (The 2021 Jaguar F-Type) Is Yellow
It is my pleasure to report today that it (the ) is yellow. That is, of the paint colors available on the 2021 Jaguar F-Type some of the colors are not yellow, whereas one, by contrast, is. The yellowness of this color is beyond reproach. Your legs feel frozen....
Sep 2, 2026
The Jeep Gladiator Is Struggling
The Jeep Gladiator Is Struggling
The 2020 Jeep Gladiator is on Struggle Street, , an outcome which is somewhat surprising but one which . It seems that $33,545 is a lot of money to pay for a pickup. By Jeep standards, that price is about in line with what you’d pay for other Jeeps—the...
Sep 2, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved